When I was a seminary student I read Elizabeth O'Connor's book "Call to Commitment" and was deeply moved by what this Christian community was able to accomplish. Through the years I read every other book by her about the Church of the Saviour. And from time to time I tried to follow the spiritual disciplines but never had the stamina to maintain them for long.

Many years passed and in retirement my wife, Debbie, and I assembled an extended group of friends into a rebuilding team. We have gone on six trips to the Gulf Coast to do Hurricane Katrina repairs and last spring broadened our efforts to include church repairs and renovations in Washington, D.C., and in Albany, NY. Through all those years, though, I never forgot this community of faith called the Church of the Saviour.

You can imagine my surprise, when last April I discovered that the Potter's House was only three blocks away from the Methodist Church where our rebuilding group was working. I had known, too, that Jean Brown, a close friend of one of our daughters-in-law, was interning someplace in D.C. but never imagined how close. By the end of our three-week rebuilding effort I had caught up with Jean and our group had not only been to the Potter's House several times, but we had also visited Christ's House to learn more about the work being done.

One thing led to another, and on our return trip home from rebuilding homes in New Orleans last Fall, Debbie and I stopped at Wellspring for the "World Within / World Without" retreat in mid-November. Janet Hudson knew something about where we had been but when she helped us move in, which included emptying our trunk load of tools into Susan Quass' garage, her eyes lit up. She began asking various questions like, "What did you say you were doing in NOLA?" And later, "Do you do other kinds of repairs?" And finally, "Have I shown you the kind of things that we need to have rebuilt around here?"

So when we met with our rebuilding friends in early December, I made them aware of the needs at Wellspring. And partially because they had seen both Christ's House and the Potter's House and heard something of the other work you do in the Adams-Morgan area, they were interested in pursuing this possibility further.

We have now found a week in March when we can come and do some of the much-needed repairs, and soon four of us will visit Wellspring to examine the individual projects more carefully. Then Debbie and I will begin getting commitments from team members to assist us the week of March 21st. I am hoping that we can bring fifteen to eighteen volunteers, plus our cook - yes, we travel with a cook - to Wellspring to tackle this list that Gale, Margaret, Janet, Susan and Jean have put together.

I have also returned to trying again to live by disciplines similar to the ones your mission teams follow and am in the midst of attempting to create a small mission group within our church, so that our building skills can be employed locally as well.

~~~~

To find out how you might also be part of this enormous gift, click here.